Me and Adele went to an intercambio on Wednesday, well, we went but we didn't actually end up speaking to anyone. Intercambios are a great idea but when they're placed in a bar/restaurant it kind of makes it difficult if you arrive late (like we did). I think it started at 8:30 or 9 but we didn't get there until around 9:45 because I had a class and Adele was giving an English lesson. We walked in and Mundo Manila (the vegetarian/vegan place it was held) was full, but it was hard to know who was there for the intercambio. We ended up just having a few drinks and great food BUT we only spoke Spanish to each other the whole evening which was fun and good practice. Mundo Manila is a cool restaurant, it's very hippy! It only serves vegan/vegetarian food but it was so nice. Our first tapas was couscous with pasas and sweet potat and our second was a sort of mini vegetable lasagne. It was a fat day so on top of that we ordered some dinner too, we both had a veggie burger. It was so good and portion sizes are very generous considering it cost about 5.50euros! I'd definitely go back there again. We're going to go to another one this week but arrive at a more appropriate time and get talking straight away!
On Thursday I also had my first presentation for Spanish. I made a pretty damn good presentation if I do say so myself. I've always used powerpoint but since my teacher recommended Prezi, I used that and it's a lot more professional. I basically did all the work for the presentation but then my group member put it on his account which I think may come across like he did it all - not impressed. One member also kept interrupting me whilst I was talking in my part of the presentation which didn't please me at all, I do have a voice - piss off. At least it's done now and that counts as my Spanish oral exam so hopefully it went ok, I wasn't as nervous as I have always been doing presentations at Kent. Usually, I can't speak or even breathe properly and my hands shake like crazy but this time it went smoothly which is good.
On Saturday we went on our trip to the Alpujarra. It was such a good but tiring day. We went on an organised trip with Low Cost Trips Granada (we might get a grant but we're still stingy students looking for a cheap deal) there was a group of 7 of us within the rest of the people on the trip. The worst part of the trip was the bus journey. I'm not a nervous traveller at all, stick me on a plane or a train and I'm fine, but when it comes to coaches in Spain this is a whole other question. They appear to love to drive fast, even when on the edge of a bloody mountain. There were a few times I thought I was going to die. The route literally was going round the corners of mountains, he was speeding round but at one point just at the edge he slammed his breaks on and that scared the hell out of me. It's not a race, slow down!! Me and Adele were joking about what would be on the news in England if our coach fell of the mountain. We could just imagine it on Look North...'two local girls from Sleaford.....'. Only joking! We made it (just) to our first town Campineira. The views were amazing but the photos I took just don't capture it. As we were so high up it was extremely cold but luckily we had worn our coats and scarves. We visited 4 towns in total, stopping off at different view points and places to visit. The scenery was amazing and we ended up being right at the back because we kept stopping to take photos.
The route we went was Campineira-Bubion-Pampaneira-Trévelez
Pampaneira and Trévelez were my favourites because of the places we went. Pampaneira was home to a really popular chocolate factory. It was set up in Argentina years and and years ago by a woman, when they died her son and his daughter came to Spain and set up the factory here (I think). They import to Belgium and throughout Spain. We got to have a degustación of the chocolate which was amazing. It was a very small little place, like the Willy Wonka of Spain (no golden ticket for me). There was weird chocolate and nice chocolate. I tried chocolate with sal (salt) which was actually really nice, with kikos (some sort of corn that wasn't as good) and all sorts. It wasn't cheap but it really was so tasty. I bought a bar of negro con coco and blanco con galleta (dark chocolate with coconut and white with biscuit). The white with biscuit tastes a bit like the GOLD chocolate bar which reminds me of my Grandad and my brother but I'm not sure why.I considered buying some as Christmas presents but then I thought realistically I will just end up eating it.. I also bought some postcards in a conscious effort to save what I can from trips and make a scrapbook of my year abroad. After the amazing chocolate factory we went to Trévelez. It is the highest town in Europe apparently, you could tell because it was so cold. However, before going directly there we stopped off at the famous fuente agria. It's a little waterfall but the water isn't clear. It's an orangey colour because it has so much iron in it. We were recommended to taste it because it is supposed to be very good for you, we reluctantly tried a little bit and it tasted like blood. No one appeared to like it but it was a really cool and strange place to visit somewhere that, if we had done this trip ourselves, we definitely would not have found or even known existed. Onwards to Trévelez, the secadero de jamón is supposedly the best in Spain and people all over Europe have it imported because it's so good. We went into the curing room which had hundreds of legs of ham hanging from the ceiling. The man explained how some are cured for lengths of time the longest jamón ibérico de Cordoba cures for 3-4 years! Dread to think how much it would cost, but I bet it tastes great. After that we got to try some different types of jamón, lomo, salchicha, chorizo - all sorts basically! Even a little glass of wine. We weren't very satisfied though so we ordered some more as they were doing special prices for us, more jamón y queso manchego - can't go wrong! Before getting the bus back we quickly nipped to a shop and bought a rug. We'd seen them in all the towns we visited, I wanted to make sure I had money left at the end. It was only 10euros and looks nice in my room.
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| Inlgesas y mejicanas |
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| Needed a bit of help.. |
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| Fuente agria |
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| Beautiful |
It was a very busy day but really enjoyable, it was nice to get out of the city environment and breathe some fresh marijuana free air!
No plans for next weekend as of yet, the weekend after Tara comes and we've got all sorts planned. A day trip somewhere, a nice walk/hike, hitting Granada and we plan on making toad in the hole on the Sunday! I'm already looking forward to that. The weekend after it looks like we are off to Madrid which will be good as I've not been before and it is the capital of Spain.
Hasta entonces,
Ellie
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